Naruto: The Gamer
by Monkey D. Toushiro
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto's perception of the world completely changes by a strange ability he gains one day. Yet, at the same time, nothing has changed. He still wanted to be strong. He still wanted to be Hokage. How was he going to do it? In one word: grinding. Title is subject to change.
1. Chapter 1: Troublesome Discoveries

Naruto: The Gamer

Inspired by _The Gamer _and _The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, _as well as exocara's _Game of Life_

Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish I could draw as well as him.

WARNING: If you don't remember the main events of the anime you might be really lost. I find it pointless to write a summary of the exact same events you can find in the anime/manga itself, but I do hint what has just happened in canon in my writing. Also it ended up being drabble-like because of that.

EDIT 8-10-15: too lazy to shift chapters down. adding prologue into first chapter.

* * *

Prologue: Dropping the Death Note

* * *

_The full moon was at its largest in the night, casting a soft glow to the multitude of buildings and trees. The trees howled loudly with the wind, as if alarmed. Leaves danced furiously in the air throughout the Hidden Leaf Village, as if running from something…_

_...or perhaps someone._

_The air shifted suddenly—nothing had changed in that particular moment, not a single speck of anything displaced. Yet there was something unmistakably different in that particular space in that very moment._

_Soft laughter rang throughout the village, but no one heard a thing. Not unless It wished it so._

_The wind and the trees howled louder than ever when a red apple flew down from the sky, hitting the ground with a dull thud. The fruit was unharmed, gleaming silver in the moonlight, appearing more black than red._

_The laughter died in the air along with the howling wind and trees and the night was silent once again._

The moon would be replaced with the sun by the time a particular boy picked up the apple off the ground took a large bite out of it while rushing to the academy. He hadn't had time to eat breakfast and was running late already.

* * *

Chapter 1: Troublesome Discoveries

* * *

_Ding!_

Ability unlocked!

[Gamer]

Naruto, age twelve, awoke to a soft bell noise. The first thing he saw was a blue text box, glowing brightly in the dark. He rubbed his eyes wearily, glancing to the side of his bed at his alarm clock that read 4:03 AM. He turned his attention back to the text box that had followed his line of vision even as he turned his head. "What is this thing..." He muttered to himself, still half asleep. He raised an arm and batted the text box away, but his fingers only slipped through it. However, immediately the text box began to fade away until it was gone completely. Naruto shrugged, pulling his blanket up to his chin and rolled to his side, falling quickly back asleep.

When it was morning, Naruto busied himself to his usual routine, which consisted of brushing his teeth, "cooking" his cup noodle and changing into his beloved orange jumpsuit. The moment he zipped up his orange jacket, he heard a _ding! _in his ears and a familiar blue text box appeared before him.

Attractiveness decreased. -10 ATTRCT

He knit his brows, puzzled and offended at the same time. He pointed at the text box, shouting, "Who are you to tell me what's attractive and what's not?!"

When only silence answered him, he sighed. "What the hell is this thing anyway?"

Recalling the message that awoke him last night, he scratched his head in confusion at its implications. Clearly it had something to do with the "Gamer" ability that he had "unlocked" at 4:02 AM somehow. But, a game? What kind of game was this? How did this thing even happen to him? After a minute of reaching more questions and no answers, he decided to ponder on it another time.

Naruto entered his bathroom to brush his teeth, letting his body conduct itself into its daily routine of wetting the toothbrush and placing toothpaste as he absently stood in front of the mirror. It was until he was almost done brushing when he noticed in the reflection there was something above him.

[Kyuubi Vessel] Uzumaki Naruto

Lvl. 15

"What is with all these floating words today?!" He shouted, his toothpaste spit-foam littering the mirror and the sink in a mess. When he moved to the other side of the mirror to set his toothbrush down, the text maintained its position above his head. "It follows me!"

He ignored it after trying to touch it a few times and cleaned up his mess before going off to the academy.

~•~

It was a day like any other; civilians bustling with activity, greeting each other with warm familiarity. However midst the normality of this particular morning in Konoha, there stood a young boy, wide-eyed, whipping his head back and forth at the sights of the village as if he hadn't been living there for twelve years since the day he was born.

While that was what it looked like, the young boy was actually staring at the air above the civilians, completely oblivious their glares and stares for the first time in his life.

This boy—namely Naruto—once again, could not comprehend what had happened to him overnight. Everyone had a little icon following above them, just like he did. They were horribly distracting; the text within the brackets were bright red, and their names, he assumed, were in bold blue text. Whatever this gamer thing was, it was pretty useful (if the fact that it was a huge distraction could be overlooked). It seemed that the information in the brackets displayed peoples' positions and what they did. For example, Azuki Sanada was a merchant, therefore within his bracket was "merchant." Considering that...he was the "Kyuubi vessel"?

~•~

"Hey, hey, Iruka-sensei."

It was break time in the academy, and as usual, no one looked to Naruto to hang out with during this time, or any time, for that matter. Iruka (Umino Iruka, academy teacher, level 76, Naruto read when he stole a quick glance above Iruka's hair) smiled down at the boy, ruffling his blonde hair affectionately. "What is it, Naruto?"

Wide-eyed, innocent, he asked, "What's a vessel?"

Iruka looked at him with sudden suspicion. Naruto added with a grin, "I'm just curious! Hokage knows everything so I have to learn everything when I take Jiji's hat!"

Iruka's caution immediately disappeared as he chuckled. He cleared his throat, and in his teacher manner, he explained, "A vessel is something that contains something. As vague as that sounds, pretty much you could consider a scroll containing a kunai, meaning the scroll is the kunai's vessel."

Naruto grinned again and said, "OK sensei! Thanks!"

Iruka smiled at him warmly and reminded him, "The genin exam is tomorrow, make sure you don't stay up too late tonight."

"OK, sensei!"

Naruto's smile disappeared into a frown the moment he turned around, stepping out of the classroom. He chose his usual spot on the swing under the tree, his small hands wrapped around the rope of the swing.

Kyuubi vessel. He had the nine-tailed fox in him. Assuming the gamer ability was correct. It would explain the incomprehensible hate he received from the villagers. He felt a stab of betrayal—Jiji never told him about it all this time. When had he planned to tell him if Naruto hadn't found out himself? Partially because of his childish desires, he wished to keep a secret from Jiji the same way he had from Naruto. He would not reveal neither his new power nor his knowledge of the fox sealed in him unless the situation was forced upon him.

Putting the fox in him aside, how did the gamer ability know this and everything about other people? What else could this ability do?

_Ding!_

Would you like to begin the tutorial?

[Yes] [No]

Tutorial? Whatever that was, it wouldn't hurt to do it right? Naruto looked around, seeing he was alone, said, "Yes."

Nothing happened.

"Uh...Yes!" He repeated, louder this time. When nothing happened again, Naruto pointed at it, shouting, "Stop ignoring me! I said yes already!" His finger accidentally pressed against the "yes" icon on the text box, and immediately the text box disappeared, another one replacing it.

Welcome to your gamer ability! This tutorial will cover the basics of how your ability works.

So _now _it decides to explain what this was?! Why didn't this appear earlier, like when he first got this thing?!

~•~

Naruto had gone home from the academy and immediately crashed onto his bed. He lay over his covers, crossing one leg over the other with a hand resting behind his head in a relaxed position.

Tapping the left top corner of the air somewhere, a drop down menu appeared. He clicked "profile," and a large text box opened in the air before him.

Username: Uzumaki Naruto

Lvl. 15

Abilities: [Gamer] [Longevity]

Skills: [Ninjutsu] [Genjutsu] . . .

Stats:

HP: 700 +80

ATTRCT: 8

CHAR: 55

END: 24

STAM: 44

VIT: 21 +80

DEF: 10

RCV: 32 +40

Luck: 2

INT: 5

Mana: 570

Sub-mana: ?

Mana CTRL: 8

Offended, Naruto questioned in protest (in his head), why his intelligence so low. Nonetheless, he was more curious about his ability long Longevity. He clicked it.

[Longevity]

Due to the Uzumaki blood that flows in you, you have inherited a common trait of Longevity. HP, VIT, STAM, RCV are increased relative to your growth.

His heart jumped in excitement at the mention of blood relatives. He had family? He would look more into the Uzumakis, one way or another, sooner or later.

Then he clicked the gamer, hoping to find some clues on the whereabouts of the ability.

[Gamer]

Allows user to use gamer capabilities.

Naruto wanted to throw something that it. "That was the vaguest thing I've ever heard!" He screamed.

~•~

Naruto zipped up his orange jacket. Today was the—

Attractiveness decreased. -10 ATTRCT

He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath to wash away his irritation. Today was the—

_Ding!_

Skill unlocked!

[Meditation]

He swore the game was _trying _to piss him off. He took another deep breath to calm himself. Today was the genin exams. He couldn't be late.

Naruto entered his kitchen, opening the refrigerator and reached for the milk carton. He opened it and was about to chug it down when he noticed the milk wasn't exactly...liquid anymore.

_Ding!_

Skill unlocked!

[Observe]

Naruto snorted at the lame skill he had just obtained. "I don't need a skill to _observe _things..." He muttered, tapping at the skill name.

[Observe] Level 1

Allows the user to observe other users' stats, states and more depending on skill level.

Naruto shrugged at the explanation, figuring he could try it out on someone later. He dumped the milk down the sink and threw it away. Grabbing a quick snack in the pantry instead, he set off to the academy, his heart dancing with anticipation at the prospect of finally becoming a real ninja.

~•~

"Naruto-kun."

Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Mizuki, the other teacher at the academy. The man squatted to meet Naruto's eye level and gave him a smile. "Don't feel bad. You can try next year."

Naruto only shook his head.

"You want to be a ninja, right?" Mizuki leaned in closer to his ear. "There's another way to pass the test."

Naruto looked up at Mizuki. "There is?"

"Yes." He gave him a small smile and whispered, "If you steal the forbidden scroll from Hokage-sama's office and show me it, you pass."

You have received a quest!

Request: Steal The Forbidden Scroll from the hokage's office.

Rewards: ?

Difficulty: E

His very first quest—an important one that would begin his ninja career.

"That's it?"

Mizuki nodded with a small smile. "Yep."

"OK, sensei, thanks for telling me!"

You have accepted the quest.

~•~

You obtained The Forbidden Scroll!

Quest completed!

See Mizuki for your reward.

With a triumphant smirk, Naruto fled Jiji's office and ran straight to the forest. He finally came to a stop in a slightly illuminated area amongst the trees and set down the large scroll he had tied on his back.

"Observe!"

The Forbidden Scroll

Rank: A

Written by Hiruzen Sarutobi, this scroll contains powerful jutsu forbidden to be used for various reasons, usually because the user risks death upon usage.

Naruto wanted to dance, scream and celebrate at the powerful item he had just obtained. From the tutorial, he knew he could consume the scroll and obtain all the jutsu that were written in there, or he could store it in his inventory. Of course he would rather take all of its skills. It was a no-brainer. However, if he consumed it, he would have nothing to return to Jiji—and more importantly, he would fail the secret genin exam that Mizuki-sensei issued to him.

"The future hokage needs to be strong, even if he needs to make a few sacrifices along the way!"

He nodded to himself and clicked the icon of the forbidden scroll in his inventory and then clicked use.

Are you sure? The item will be consumed.

[Yes] [No]

He clicked yes.

_Bzzt._

Your level was insufficient and was unable to consume The Forbidden Scroll.

"Nooo!" He wailed in despair, doubling over on the ground as if in pain. After a long moment on the forest floor, he recovered, hastily sitting up and pulling the scroll out of his inventory. If he couldn't use the gamer ability to learn jutsu, he could always learn it himself, as he had always done.

He unrolled the scroll, squinting at the writings, trying to see past the darkness with the moonlight. "Shadow clone jutsu?" Naruto grinned. "All right, time to get to work!"

He tested the hand sign, inputting a bit of chakra into it. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

On the third try, he succeeded, creating ten shadow clones. "I did it!"

_Ding!_

Sub-skill unlocked!

{Shadow Clone Jutsu}

He clicked the icon of the new jutsu he learned, bringing up the familiar blue text box.

{Shadow Clone Jutsu} Level 1

Sub-skill under [Ninjutsu] skill.

Rank: A

Creates shadow clones. The number of clones created varies upon mana usage. These clones are physical beings, therefore can deal damage and can be dealt damage. Shadow clones can only withstand about one hit, therefore is not commonly used in combat. Because of its memory retaining properties—where when the clone is dispelled, the memory of the clone is transferred to the user—it is mostly used for scouting.

Immediately Naruto knew that this "mana" the game spoke of was equivalent to chakra. Then after rereading the description several times, Naruto finally understood what it meant by "memory retention" and produced one clone, told it to face the other direction, and then dispelled it. The image of the trees behind him popped into his mind. He spun around to look at the trees behind him, confirming the memory.

~•~

Naruto touched the forehead protector he wore on his head with a hand—it was once Iruka's and now it was his—grinning as he settled himself onto his bed. After taking Iruka to the hospital, seeing as his teacher had protected him from a giant shurikan which Mizuki-bastard had thrown, Naruto had gone back to his apartment, his head swimming chaotically with all the new information he had learned.

He understood now why the quest information did not specify the reward and left it with four question marks even though Mizuki had claimed to promote him into a genin. Mizuki had never intended to promote him, so the quest reward was left unknown—the game system never lied even if the requester did.

He still had a lot to learn about his gamer ability. First, he would survey everything he had with his gamer ability. That meant reading the description of all his skills and sub-skills and whatever else he had missed.

Second, he needed to level up. A lot. He didn't expect to level up too quickly so soon; even Iruka-sensei was only level seventy-six, which was still way higher than him, but he also knew Iruka-sensei was only a chuunin. A position far, far away from his goal. More importantly, it had hurt to miss the chance of learning all the jutsu from the forbidden scroll just because he wasn't high leveled enough.

Naruto sat up and opened his game profile and began reading his skills.

One skill he had written off before was meditation. It raised a bit of HP and recovery temporarily and even permanently raised mana control description also mentioned he would find a kind of "calm and balance within oneself."

Naruto figured it'd be useful to level it up, so he rolled off his bed and sat on the floor, back straight, hands in his lap, eyes closed, and took a deep, calming breath.

You have entered your meditative state.

~•~

His eyes shot open when a thought occurred to him. It was ingenious of him, really.

You have exited your meditative state.

[Meditation] has leveled up!

[Meditation] has leveled up!

[Meditation] is now level 3.

HP and RCV increased for 30 minutes. +15 HP RCV

Mana CTRL stat increased. +1

Putting his fingers together, he created a shadow clone. "Use observe on whatever is in the room."

The clone saluted. "Yes boss!"

_I hope it works, _he thought as he sat back down, ignoring the constant shouts of "observe!" and resumed his meditation.

You have entered your meditative state.

You have exited your meditative state.

HP and RCV increased for 30 minutes. +50 HP RCV

Mana CTRL stat increased. +6

"Hey boss?" His clone rasped out, his throat horribly dry after shouting "observe!" non-stop for who-knew-how-long. "Can I stop now?"

Naruto opened the game's drop down menu, glancing at the top right corner for the time. 3:08 AM. It had been at it for an hour and a half. "Yeah. Thanks!" Naruto said with an uncharacteristic smile. He was feeling at peace with himself—something he had never felt in his entire life—which must've been the effects of the meditation, he mused. The clone looked at him strangely before dispelling himself.

[Observe] has leveled up!

[Observe] has leveled up!

[Observe] is now level 3.

Naruto's eyes widened in excitement. It worked! "Yes! It worked! It worked!" He jumped up and pumped his fist in the air. His clone's EXP gained from using skills transferred back to him when it dispelled. This was an amazing tool he would not let up.

He ended up staying up the rest of the night, meditating with five other clones. He managed to raise his meditation skill to level seven and his mana control stat to twenty-eight. He also noticed the level up effects never came into play until after he stopped meditating. Lastly, somewhere in the night he had also raised his overall level by two, raising all his stats by a bit. Progress on his other stats was slow, but he wasn't sure how to raise them. He only had the gamer ability for two days so far but Naruto would make sure to figure out how to train his other stats in the future.

He came into the academy, feeling and probably looking like shit. Naruto chose a seat in the back, so he could use his observe skill on everyone in the room. He wasn't curious about his classmates to that extent—frankly he couldn't care less (although it irritated him that Sasuke-bastard was level twenty-two), but he noticed he gained more experience points towards his observe skill when he used it on living things, and even more when they were higher level.

[Observe] has leveled up!

[Observe] is now level 4.

Upon reading Sasuke's information (almost snorting when he read Sasuke's title "The Last Uchiha"), Naruto noticed a special ability he had—the sharingan. Naruto knew by now that abilities were not common—most people had none, and most abilities were inherited. The sharingan must have been the reason why everyone revered the ground "The Last Uchiha" walked on. He clicked it to read what it was, but his observe level wasn't high enough to observe other peoples' skill details.

"Naruto, what are you doing here!"

Haruno Sakura, level six, top academy student.

Naruto smiled tiredly at her. "Hi, Sakura-chan."

"Don't call me 'chan,' stupid! I asked you why you're here when you haven't even passed the genin test!"

Naruto beamed, tapping his forehead protector and said, "I did."

She stared at it in confusion, then humphed and stomped away to Ino, who sat in the front row waiting for Sasuke. Naruto was just glad she didn't hit him.

~•~

"Why am I in the same team as Naruto?!" shouted Sakura, pointing at Naruto, who only opened one eye from where he lay on top of the desk. Sakura scowled, "Stop ignoring me! What happened to you anyway?! Why are you so quiet!"

Sasuke stole a glance at him, wondering the same thing.

"I'm just tired. Sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto mumbled in his sleeve with his eyes closed.

She looked at him in surprise, unsure of what to say.

From there, the three of them spent three hours in the classroom, Sakura angrily pacing around the floor with an occasional shout of fury at their unknown teacher; Sasuke sitting there with the usual brooding expression; and Naruto snoring away on a desk.

~•~

Hatake Kakashi was a lazy man. Laid-back, shameless, and behind the tirade of fake smiles everyone could see through was a nasty personality. He blamed his jadedness. At the same time, he prided himself in being very thorough. Having read his students' records, he wasn't sure if they were going to be his students for long.

Nonetheless, he entered the classroom with intentions of impartial judgment, choosing to decide what he saw about them himself.

The first thing he saw was Haruno Sakura shoving herself in front of his face, shouting something about if he "really was our teacher" and being "almost worse than Naruto." The second thing he saw was Uchiha Sasuke standing a ways behind the loud pink one, with slight animosity showing in his brooding gaze. Lastly, his eyes landed on a lump of orange slumped over a desk—Uzumaki Naruto—who was sound asleep.

"My first impression is: I hate you all. Meet me on the roof." He shunshined in a swirl of leaves.

~•~

Naruto rubbed his head at the spot where Sakura had hit him (she had promptly awoken him with her fist and her voice. He swore he lost some health from her shouting in his ear), and glanced up at their new teacher who was leaning against the roof's railing.

[Copy Ninja] Hatake Kakashi

Lvl. ?

He must've been too low leveled to even see Kakashi's level. He muttered under his breath, "Observe."

_Bzzt. _

Your [Observe] skill level was insufficient and was unable to use [Observe] on this player.

Damn. It always came back down to levels. Then he noticed everyone was looking at him expectantly, so he knew he was definitely supposed to be answering something. Rubbing the back of his head, he asked with a sheepish smile, "Sorry, what was the question?"

"Likes, dislikes, hobby and your dream." Kakashi inputted with a sigh, pulling out a conspicuous orange book.

"I like ramen and training. I dislike lies and wasting ramen. My dream is to be Hokage! And my hobby is also training and," he paused, and then with a chuckle, as if sharing an inside joke with himself, he said, "games."

* * *

A/N:

Eh yep. That's chap 1. If anyone has any questions about the game system, I'd be happy to answer it. I'm still solidifying the whole game system thing myself, so it'd be helpful to have some outside insight on it too.


	2. Chapter 2: Knowledge is Power

eyyy I'm back. Haha. Thanks for all the favs/follows and reviews. I really appreciate it. I didn't update for a looong looong time so I apologize for that. Now I have a general direction of where I want this fic to go, so hopefully it won't happen again! (I got really excited and starting typing this up haha)

Naruto: The Gamer

Chapter Two: Knowledge is Power

* * *

"Seriously, what is with my jacket?" Naruto bit out in irritation when his attractiveness decreased by ten yet again after wearing it. Taking it off and setting it on the floor, he pointed at it and said, "Observe!"

Dirty Orange Jacket

Value: E

A dirty orange jacket that is very displeasing to the eye.

-10 Attractiveness when worn.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, affronted. "I have a good fashion sense! It's not ugly, you stupid game!"

He sat down on the floor of his apartment, his expression suddenly thoughtful. "Come to think of it, what does attractiveness do anyway?" Opening his profile window, he scanned his stats once more. His eye stopped on a particular line of text, narrowing them as he clicked on the subject of interest.

Sub-mana

The user's other facet of mana.

His other facet of chakra. Naruto put a hand to his stomach as realization struck him. Kyuubi's chakra. His eyebrows raised at the new information and was unable to hold back a grin of excitement. This meant that he could potentially use the beast's chakra. He wondered if his sub-mana's stats showed as an unknown number because the information was simply inaccessible or if the number was so large that even the game system couldn't put a number to it. Then remembering his original purpose of opening his profile, he clicked attract.

Attractiveness

How attractive the user is. Similar to charisma, this improves the attitude of how other players treat the user.

Naruto scowled, immediately thinking of the villagers' treatment towards him. _Fat lotta good attractiveness and charisma do when everyone hates you for keeping the freaking Kyuubi in your gut. _He let out a deep breath and shook his head. There was no point in thinking about stuff like that. He needed to leave early; he had a team meeting to attend to, but also wanted to eat ramen for breakfast.

~ Gamer ~

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto approached the bridge with a grin, feeling sated with his filled stomach. "And Sasuke," he added in afterthought. Both Sasuke and Sakura were glaring at him with different degrees of intensity. Sasuke turned away with a sniff while Sakura came stomping towards him with her fists swinging by her sides.

"Naruto, you stupid, why do you smell like ramen?!"

He tilted his head in confusion at her question. "Because I just ate ramen?"

At this, Sasuke turned back towards him and Sakura let out an unladylike growl. "Stupid idiotic, you! Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat!"

Naruto couldn't recall him saying that. In fact, he could barely remember anything that Kakashi had said to them yesterday. His new gamer ability had been plaguing his mind ever since it had appeared. He flashed Sakura a sheepish smile. "He did? I must not have heard him then."

Behind her, Sasuke scoffed and said with a smirk, "Are you sure your mutt of a brain just couldn't comprehend it?"

Naruto could feel the usual irrational anger rise in him, attempting to push it down this time. Unfortunately his temper wasn't good enough not to scowl and add, "Whatever you'd like to think, _Uchiha_."

Sasuke and Sakura both looked at him in surprise before exchanging a look at each other. The loud tirade of protests from the boy they had expected never came. After that, they left Naruto to his own thoughts while Sakura attempted to sidle up to her crush again.

Naruto sat on the edge of the bridge, facing away from his teammates. He wasn't going to waste time waiting for their teacher who Naruto suspected would be just as late as he was yesterday.

He was beginning to realize the infinite potential the gamer ability was providing him. It gave him knowledge, which gave him power. Understanding the strange ability could give him a considerate amount of strength. For the first time, Naruto understood what "knowledge is power" meant. He created five other shadow clones and had them sit with him, ignoring his teammates' demands for explanation.

You have entered your meditative state.

~ Gamer ~

Figuring it was time to meet up with Team Seven, Kakashi bid goodbye to his teammates on the black slab of stone and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

He silently reappeared near the bridge, perched upon a tree branch. His only visible eyebrow rose above forehead guard at the sight of his students on the bridge.

It would be more accurate to say at the sight of a particular student of his, rather than them as a whole. There were six orange figures sitting on the side of the bridge with their legs crossed, somehow looking comfortable on the thin wooden beam, all six of them perfectly still.

Meditating.

From what he had seen and the files he had read, this was not something the kid who constantly reminded the villagers of his more than ambitious goal on the top of his lungs would do. In fact, during his ANBU days of watching the blonde, he had never seen him so still in his _sleep. _

It was also apparent that the kyuubi vessel had extraordinarily large reserves for someone his age—or anyone's age, really. Not that it was surprising to see.

Narrowing his eyes in thought, he wondered what kind of clones his student had made. He lifted his headband, focusing a tiny amount of chakra into his eye. All six figures had tenketsu points, so they were shadow clones...

The mismatched eyes widened when he finally understood the implications of Naruto's usage of shadow clones.

Perhaps his teacher's son was closer to the kage position than he had originally thought it was.

Kakashi stood, watching the orange clad boy grow smaller as he ran off into the crowded streets of Konoha. The boy had been unusually quiet since the day Kakashi had introduced himself to his students. He knew from past observations that this was most uncharacteristic of his new student.

When he approached his students at the bridge that morning, Naruto had not stopped meditating until Sakura screeched in his ear. Even Kakashi winced from where he had been standing. Naruto and his clones had fallen off the bridge in surprise, but irritation was the last thing that had shown on his face when he emerged from the lake.

The boy looked like he had the world's greatest epiphany.

Kakashi's suspicion was confirmed when Naruto approached him after the bell test and asked him if there was any way he could access jutsu scrolls somewhere without anyone noticing they were gone.

He suggested the library but warned him not to steal anything there. Naruto nodded with a goofy grin on his face-he probably hadn't even heard his warning. When he excused his students, Naruto was gone, running back into the village, leaving only dust in his wake.

Just what happened to his new student recently?

~ Gamer ~

Naruto ran home as fast as he could, paying no mind to the villagers who threw him disgusted looks as he passed them. The genin test was a surprise but he was glad his teammates were able to put their differences behind them at least momentarily. Sakura had been tied to the log post and Naruto did not hesitated to feed her, but she had refused to accept his food, claiming she would only accept Sasuke's. The whole test seemed far away, even while he was in it. The idea he had thought up during his meditation on the bridge was on the forefront of his mind the whole time. He was angry at himself for not thinking of it sooner, but his excitement for the possibilities his idea presented far exceeded his anger.

Naruto made it to his apartment in record speed, took a quick shower and set ten clones meditating on the floor. He exited his apartment and created another ten clones and told them to walk around the village to use [Observe] on people, preferably ninja (they were always much higher level than civilians). Then he set off to his destination, feeling great satisfaction at the _true _meaning of efficiency.

He stood before a faded green building he had seen countless times but never entered. A large sign in the front in bold read "Konoha Public Library".

Naruto entered the building, eyes wide as he took in the amount of books and scrolls that filled the shelves. If knowledge was power, then the library contained the most power in the village.

He walked up to the front desk where an elderly lady ([Librarian] Keiko Hikida, level 5) sat reading a book and said politely as he could, "Excuse me, but could you point to me where I can read about jutsu here?"

She gave him a speculative look, eyeing his orange jumpsuit in distaste. "Are you even a ninja, kid?"

Trying not to feel offended, he tapped his forehead protector in exasperation. "Yes, I am."

She grudgingly pointed to a door at the far end of the room and told him he was required to show his ninja ID in order to enter the ninja section.

The ninja section was completely empty and dust covered every shelf and table. It was apparent that everyone preferred to physically train than to read. He shook his head at the arrogance of his fellow ninjas. They were denying power that they could easily obtain if they spent a fraction of their training time reading up on information the library provided. Not that Naruto himself was any better. He didn't come to the library to read, no...

Naruto grinned, looking for a title that the library had multiple copies of that he wanted to use. If the scroll was too advanced, he would probably be too low levelled to consume it, so he had to find one that had basic skills.

Soon, he found one called _Guide to Rudimentary Earth Jutsu_. He grabbed one of the copies off the shelf and put it into his inventory. He tapped the icon of the earth scroll, and then "use."

Are you sure? The item will be consumed.

[Yes] [No]

He hesitated for a moment before clicking yes. If he was prepared to consume the _Forbidden Scroll, _there's no way he couldn't take a basic earth scroll that no one would miss. Naruto was already heavily regretting letting the scroll go that night.

[Basic Earth Scroll] consumed.

_Ding!_

Sub-skill unlocked!

{Earth Release: Mud Wall}

_Ding!_

New info unlocked! See _Consumption _under Information.

Naruto frowned when no more notifications popped up_. _He only learned one jutsu from the scroll. There was no way the earth scroll that size only had _one _jutsu in there. He grabbed another copy of the same earth scroll, quickly scanning its contents. His frown grew even more severe when he confirmed it. He only skimmed the scroll and had spotted at least three different jutsu explained.

He waved his hand to bring his drop down menu out, clicking the information button. Perhaps the new information he had unlocked would explain it. He clicked the "Consumption" button, which had a flashy red "new" next to it.

_Only skill tomes can be consumed. Informational tomes must be personally read by the user. The user will only gain one random skill from the skill tome. Consuming tomes will result in the tome to disappear. _

He cursed. "Stupid game, couldn't tell me this earlier could you?!"

Still, he was glad he didn't consume the Forbidden Scroll. All but one jutsu would have been lost otherwise.

Naruto sighed and shook his head. This game really liked making things difficult for him. He wasn't going to be able to take advantage of the book consumption after all. Nonetheless, he spent another half hour grabbing a stack of books and a bundle of scrolls from the library. If there was one thing he learned from coming here, it was that he wasn't going to be the next ninja to forfeit the wealth of information the books and scrolls provided.

He dropped his stuff in his apartment and headed to training area seven to test out his new earth jutsu. Naruto sat at the foot of a tree and navigated to the earth jutsu from the game menu.

{Earth Release: Mud Wall} [Auto-learn] lvl 1

Sub-skill under [Ninjutsu] skill.

Rank: B/E

Brings up a hard mud wall. The rank varies depending on whether the user produces his or her own mud or uses already existing earth.

Then in red text under the description, it said:

-20% effectiveness due to user's elemental incompatibility.

"Elemental incompatibility? Auto-learn?" He asked in dismay. There was a never ending list of complications. Naruto would have to look into elemental compatibility later. "For now, I'll just try it out," he muttered to himself.

He stood and said, "Earth release: mud wall!" As he spoke, he felt his body move on its own, his fingers moving to form a series of hand seals. A wall of rock rose from the earth, around the same height as himself. He stared at it in silence.

He tried it again, once again feeling the strange detached sensation as his own body formed the seals on its own. "Oh my god. The game took over my body. _The game just took over my body._"

This was more than creepy. This was absolutely disturbing. Just what was this game system? Where did it get its information from? If it was an ability that came from himself, shouldn't the game have the exact same amount of knowledge as he did?

"Well, at least I know what it means by 'auto-learn' now."

_Ding!_

New info unlocked! See _Auto-learn _under Information.

_When a skill is not learned manually but from a skill book, the skill begins with an auto-learn status. Using auto mode uses more mana. Once the user has familiarized with the skill, it will be upgraded to a beginner status._

So this meant if he practiced enough, he'd be able to use the jutsu without the game system's help. He nodded to himself, and created twenty new clones. He would get rid of the handicap as soon as possible. Soon, there were twenty-one voices—who all sounded the same—shouting out the technique in the training area.

~ Gamer ~

Weeks passed quickly as Naruto submerged himself in scrolls and training. Instead of attending the team meetings himself, he sent a clone to go in his stead. A few times the clone had popped during their mission, but Naruto had simply created another and sent it to where the previous clone had dispelled. He was sure Kakashi had long noticed his usage of shadow clones to attend the meetings, yet the older man had not spoken to him about it. He wasn't sure what that meant, but since Kakashi hadn't told him to stop, Naruto went on doing it. He received their memories in the end and clones had the exact same personality as him, so it was equivalent to him being there himself anyway. Plus, the D-rank missions Team Seven did were closer to community service than anything else. Each mission's payment was lower than minimum wage. The only good thing that came out of it was that missions were equivalents of game quests, so when he completed a mission, he completed a quest, which gave him some free EXP. Either way, it wasn't worth his time to personally be there.

Naruto had decided the tome consumption just wasn't worth it and chose to manually learn everything. While he learned the technique much faster (the auto-learn status shed after his twenty clones had all only used the technique _once_), he would lose all the other jutsu in the books. He also simply hated the lack of control over his body while the game _performed the technique for him. _Even now, the concept baffled him.

After receiving the message of "elemental incompatibility", he dived into his scrolls and books for more information when the game did not seem inclined to divulge him more information itself. Very quickly he learned the existence of elemental chakra and had asked Kakashi for some elemental paper. Kakashi did not seem surprised and only gave him a analyzing look before he agreed. This resulted in a whole lesson with Team Seven about elemental chakra and techniques. Better for him, anyway, since he didn't need to filter important stuff from the dense lines of text. He read for necessity, not enjoyment.

The elemental paper signified he was purely wind affinity. (Sakura was earth, and much to Naruto's ire, Sasuke was lightening _and _fire.) He was slightly disappointed at this; he wanted at least a second element. The difference between his earth and wind techniques was huge. He had grabbed the scarce number of wind scrolls from the library (apparently Konoha didn't have many wind users) and one of the techniques he had learned was wind release: great breakthrough, which released a gust of wind forward. Inputting the same amount of chakra as he did with the mud wall had resulted in the tree that he had stood in front of almost knocked off its roots. It also sounded _way _cooler than "mud wall."

Learning element based jutsu was one thing, but pure elemental chakra manipulation was another. It was a bitch. He had read up on a basic wind chakra exercise and spent, with fifty other clones, a good number of hours and only managed a slit of about two centimeters down his leaf. If it really came down to it, he would consume a scroll from the library on elemental chakra manipulation. No one had noticed the absence of the earth scroll he consumed a few weeks back. In fact, he doubted any ninja other than himself had been visiting the library anyway.

On the flip side, [Observe] and [Meditation] had been going well. His mana control stat was much higher, and miraculously, the D-rank missions had somehow upped his other stats a bit—a miniscule amount, but it was something.

It was evening now, and Naruto decided to try adding something other than ramen to his diet. _Basics of Becoming a Ninja _had said having balanced meals was one of the basics of basic skills of shinobi. (It had also said something outrageous about wearing _black _or _dark _colors. Ridiculous.) So he henged himself to a civilian and bought some groceries.

Naruto constantly referenced the cookbook he borrowed from the library, attempting to cook beef stew. He finally managed to get the ingredients all in the pot and only had to wait for twenty minutes.

When it was done, he poured a bowl of it for himself. The stew was pure black with purple fumes emanating from the bowl. He looked at his bowl of stew, then back to the picture from the cookbook contemplatively, muttering to himself, "Mine's a bit darker than the one in the picture…" He nodded assuredly and continued, "but I'm sure it's only because they used flash to take the picture."

_Ding!_

New skill unlocked!

Naruto's heart sped up in excitement; he hadn't learned a new skill since his first day with the gamer ability. The box faded, and a new one appeared:

[Poison Cooking]

He furrowed his brows in puzzlement. "Poison cooking?" He clicked on it, opening another box of text.

[Poison Cooking] lvl 9

Cooks poison. Food cooked with this skill cause extreme nausea, and possibly death.

And then in red, it wrote:

Due to the lethality of the nasty dish that unlocked this skill, it began above level 1.

Naruto sputtered at the text, completely offended at the blasé insults the game system threw at him. "I-I can cook! Why would a dumb game know better than the person who cooked himself!" To prove his point, he grabbed his spoon and swallowed a spoonful of his stew without hesitation. He felt his throat burn as it slid down and suppressed the urge to choke. His tongue felt as though a blacksmith decided use it as an anvil. The furious burn pooled in his stomach, spreading as quick as fire. "I-it tastes as good as T-teuchi old man's ramen…"

His eyes widened when he saw an HP bar appear, the full green bar quickly reducing to lower than half, and still going lower. "N-no!" He shouted when the bar was red now. His tongue felt numb and swollen. A bit of stew dribbled down his chin, but when he wiped it away with a trembling hand, he realized it was blood. "I dun wanna die…"

It was 5/920 now.

_Ding!_

A red text box appeared.

Warning!

You are dying.

"Thanks for the news update."

Four HP.

"No! Stoooop!"

Three HP.

"OK, OK, I admit it, I can't cook! I'll die if I eat my cooking!"

He cursed his unlucky and miserable life, swearing someone was out there laughing at him at this moment.

The last thing he saw was a blue text box that appeared in his vision, but he was far too gone to catch a glimpse of what it said…

* * *

OMAKE 1: Naruto Did Math

He wondered if his sub-mana's stats showed as an unknown number because the information was simply inaccessible or if the number was so large that even the game system couldn't put a number to it. Then remembering his original purpose of opening his profile, he clicked attract.

Attractiveness

How attractive the user is. Similar to charisma, this improves the attitude of how other players treat the user.

His eyes widened marginally as he took in this new piece of information. He leapt to his feet and scrambled for paper and a pencil. Almost vibrating in excitement, he forced himself to sit at the table as he quickly scribbled his new idea down:

_higher charisma/attractiveness = people treat me better_

_becoming hokage = people treat me better_

Naruto grinned almost savagely as he shouted, "THEREFORE BY THE ASSOCIATIVE PROPERTY…!" And quickly wrote:

_higher char/attrt = BECOMING HOKAGE!_

He underlined the last line three times and circled it with shaky hands. "Oh my _god, _I just found the secret to becoming Hokage. I'm such a _genius!_"

* * *

A/N:

Sorry the poison cooking thing was not part of the plan at all. it will contribute though XD

IMPORTANTO NOTE: I'm adding a prologue before chapter one. It doesn't add anything to the current plotline of it, but eventually far far later maybe you guys will see a connection, hint hint. :D

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! You'll be seeing me soon enough. \ (=u=) /


	3. Chapter 3: The Kyuubi

I write under the assumption the reader knows about the whole kyuubi attack on konoha.

Naruto: The Gamer

Chapter 3: The Kyuubi

* * *

Naruto stirred and cracked open his eyes, feeling like the fourth ninja war had taken place in his head. And _oh god, _he tasted something awful in his mouth. He wanted to scratch his tongue out. Vaguely in the back of his head he registered it was probably from the aftertaste of his stew.

He got to his feet, realizing that he was standing in a sewer. On the walls that seem to stretch so far up that it disappeared in the darkness, were two torches on each side, the only light source in the area. The water went barely up to his ankles and appeared black.

He looked around and immediately, a large cage at the far end of the room caught his attention. The bars were old and large, each one wider than himself. In the very center was a nondescript seal that looked as if it were made just yesterday, looking extremely out of place compared to the rest of the things in the room.

"Where is this-"

A sound of something huge crashing against the metal bars interrupted him. A voice resonated in the room, low and intense, and seemed to come from everywhere, spoke. "You stupid _stupid _human trash, I've lived a long time and I've never seen nor heard of anyone dying from eating their own food."

Naruto had the grace to feel slightly embarrassed, but immediately ruined it by stuttering out, "W-well I'm not just anyone!"

He couldn't determine what shape the large thing behind the bars was in the dark, but he had a good guess. It had fur, for one, and its slitted eyes were large and red and feral, gleaming maliciously in the dark. Oh, and above the towering figure said [The Nine Tailed Fox]. The rest name and level were censored with question marks. At least he confirmed the whole "Kyuubi sealed in him" theory.

"Am I dead?" Naruto blurted out. This whole situation was feeling surreal.

The thing actually _rolled its eyes at him_ and scoffed. "_No, _you obtuse human, your body went and leeched off of my chakra to save you, so you owe me for that."

Heated anger rose to the surface. "I don't owe you anything!" If it weren't for the damn fox, he wouldn't have lived as the village pariah up until now.

It raised a nonexistent brow at him impassively. "Was it I who shunned you?" It was like it had read his mind.

Naruto knew it was right. The villagers had rejected him, not the Kyuubi. Still, he was angry. He was angry that it was right, and he was still angry for everything that had been done to him. He couldn't let go of this anger so easily. His life's suffering couldn't be tossed and thrown away so easily. "You destroyed our village and countless people's lives!"

It snorted and shifted into a more comfortable position, bringing its head down to lie on its paws. "You think I'd even care enough to bother with a puny _human _village?" Its glowing eyes met his. "Don't point fingers at me before getting your facts straight."

"What do you mean?" Naruto took a step forward. "Are you saying you didn't do it?" He scowled. "That _everyone _must've just imagined the whole thing at the same time while some spontaneously died? _Bullshit!"_

It let out a warning growl that shook the room; the surface of the water rippled uneasily and the lights flickered out. "_Don't._" Naruto couldn't see anything but its blood red eyes in the dark. They narrowed and gleamed even brighter. "Leave here now." The Kyuubi shot a pulse of power out, rattling the very air in the room.

The Kyuubi's intense chakra hit him from all sides and filled the room like thick gas. Naruto's knees buckled and he choked, unable to handle the pressure of its killing intent. If he could feel the tips of his fingers, he would have realized they were cold and clammy. He willed his hands that were quivering in fear and anger to still with no avail. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the fox and said through gritted teeth, "No!" He wasn't going to just keel over in defeat from its chakra. He wouldn't let this end until he said so. In a burst of determination, he pushed the Kyuubi's chakra away with his own and straightened his stance.

_Ding!_

New stat unlocked!

Sub-endurance

Sub-endurance +1

Sub-endurance +1

Sub-endurance +1

Sub-endurance +1. . .

The fury that made him shake and his vision blur was swept away in that moment from the sheer spontaneity of the game's reappearance.

_Seriously, in this crazy situation you still decide to randomly show up?! _He almost wanted to laugh.

The torches' flames flickered back in life, burning brighter than ever. Naruto, feeling much calmer, stood his ground. He needed answers. The game reminded him to look past his anger—not let it go, but put it aside momentarily; there were much more he could gain from this than from letting his temper take him. Naruto breathed in deeply and let it out slowly. "OK, we can drop the Konoha attack for now. I'll leave once you answer some questions. Where am I?"

The Kyuubi stared at him for a long moment before it retracted its killing intent, deciding it was easier to humor the boy than force him out. It sighed and returned to its previous relaxed position. "This is a physical representation of your mind."

Naruto stared at him blankly with a frown.

"This place exists only in your mind. Why do you think the lights turned back on?"

"But I never created a sewer in my mind!" Naruto was beginning to feel offended. Was it implying that his mind represented a _sewer_?

The fox sighed again and scoffed, "You think I wanted to live in a sewer? Anyway I answered your burning question, now leave."

Naruto filed this information away for further research and shook his head. "No. Why me? Why did the Fourth Hokage choose me? Do tailed beast have the same kind of chakra as ninja do, and if not, then how come my body was able to use yours to heal myself?" He had read from a scroll that tailed beasts were merely a large body of chakra with some semblance of sentience, but he wasn't so sure about that now that he'd met one. But just what were they then? "What are tailed beasts and how are they formed?"

The Kyuubi's snout was twisted into a snarl by the time Naruto finished his tirade of questions. Clearly some of them were sensitive topics. "The Fourth Hokage was your father. I refuse to answer the rest of your questions. Now _leave_ or I'll make you leave."

"How can I come back to talk to you?" This was crucial. Now that he had thought about it, it would be stupid of him to pass up on gaining knowledge from a being that had lived for thousands of years. Even though the fox was clearly unstable and destroyed a ton of people's lives, he'd rather it be on its side than against it. He hoped his anger hadn't ruined his chance yet. Perhaps he needed to meditate more to learn to curb his temper…

Friend request sent.

What. The. Hell. Was. That.

It snorted. "Don't bother trying."

_Bzzt._

Friend request rejected.

Naruto stepped forward. "What do you want?"

Friend request sent.

"Nothing you can give me."

_Bzzt._

Friend request rejected.

Naruto paused, considering. "You said you lived in this place and that it was formed from my mind. What if I made this place the way you want it, that is if you teach me how to change it in the first place? With the seal on of course."

Friend request sent.

It snorted. "Why should I bother to teach you anything? I've lived a long time. Another twenty, thirty years in a sewer is nothing. Time means little to me."

The game hadn't told him he rejected his friend request yet. He had a chance. A passing thought that he caught ahold of struck him. Since the game _said _he was sending out a friend request, he might as well…

"Then can't we be friends?"

The fox recoiled in shock, its eyes widening in disbelief. It quickly recovered before it narrowed its eyes, furious, and unleashed its true wrath. Its long array of teeth flashed as it roared, "Are you _mocking _me?" Even without the chakra, the sheer volume of the voice rattled the bars again. The killing intent was no longer being held back like last time—last time had only been done in warning. This was much _much_ more potent, and Naruto could feel the raging chakra from the tips of his toes to the ends of his hair to the behinds his of eyelids (which were now squeezed shut) and it physically hurt.

He had to fight it. Naruto hadn't realized it before, now he knew—this was what they both needed. He was forced to his knees and his arms had no strength to keep his upper body away from the ground so he stumbled into the sewer water with a splash. He barely registered his condition, purely focused on trying to speak. "No! I'm serious! Listen to me!"

The killing intent did not relent. "I'm listening."

"I never could understand why everyone hated me, so something _must _have been wrong with me. But I know now that's not true." Naruto's entire body visibly trembled with emotions he could not put to words. "It's the same with you right? I don't know how you came about, but no doubt you were powerful. Everyone feared you for that, didn't they? Without _really _knowing you."

The Kyuubi was _lonely, _just like he was.

The more he spoke, the more he believed it. He suspected there was something more, something bigger that was manipulating things in the dark, if the Kyuubi's cryptic words were anything to go by. From what he had seen, the fox wasn't an unfeeling mass of pure evil—no, it had feelings like he did. It—or was it a he or a she?—experienced anger (most evidently so) and exasperation and amusement and _loneliness. _

Slowly, feeling came back to his now tingling fingers. The Kyuubi's killing intent was gradually receding. "No…" Naruto heard the fox growl out softly in denial.

"Can't we try?" Naruto felt strong enough to stand again. "I-" He faltered. "I never had a friend before."

Only Naruto's heavy breaths could be heard at that moment. Finally, the Kyuubi released a breath of its own.

"OK," the fox grumbled. "We can try."

_Ding!_

[The Nine Tailed Fox] has accepted your friend request.

Naruto had a face splitting grin on him as he jumped up in the air, pumping his fist, momentarily reverting back to his old antics.

"Yes! Yes!" He looked at the fox, who looked much more real than compared to his first impression of it before. The insides of the cage now had two torches of its own, (he had no idea when they appeared) and he now saw that the Kyuubi did have a corporal form and looked rather like an enormous orange fox. It only made him even more curious as to what tailed beasts really were. Naruto approached the bars and stuck his hand out with a grin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage. Pleased to meet you!"

The fox gave him a disgruntled look. "This situation disgusts me."

"Don't leave me hanging here, tell me your name, since it can't be Kyuubi."

The Kyuubi looked at him thoughtfully before it said, "My name is Kurama."

Naruto wore a small smile but said nothing, waiting with an eyebrow raised.

It came out in a rush. "...pleasedtomeetyoutoo."

He didn't even know foxes could look embarrassed.

~ The Gamer ~

Naruto found out a number of things after he spoke to Kurama. There was too much to take in, really. First off, his father and the fact that his mother was the previous jinchuuriki, and before that was Uzumaki Mito, the Shodaime's wife. He would _definitely _have to look into his family later.

Then, there was the friends feature of the game ability he had no idea existed. He would look on the information tab and hopefully find something on that. He also didn't know if he should tell Kurama about the ability in the first place. Naruto felt that the ability was from something even more powerful than the tailed beast—the ability was too omniscient. Or maybe not, because it didn't know Kurama's name until Naruto knew it himself. The whole thing was confusing for him. He decided he wouldn't bother thinking about the origins of the gamer ability until a long, long time later.

And the most shocking and worrying matter was Uchiha Madara and the unknown other Uchiha ninja. He felt like Kurama spoke the truth, but the whole thing seemed so otherworldly and far fetched, it was hard to believe. Naruto wasn't surprised at all to hear that the Konoha attack was not Kurama's fault, but for someone to be controlling him—well if it were true, Kurama really was just a victim in the whole thing. Kurama went on explaining the power of the sharingan, and it was truly a frightening thing: to be able to _control _the tailed beasts. Naruto promised he would try to hunt the masked man down, along with Uchiha Madara if he was still alive. (At this, Kurama snorted and said Naruto wasn't even anywhere near to consider _considering _it, much to Naruto's offense.) Naruto sincerely hoped Madara wasn't alive and was very displeased to hear that Kurama believed Madara was very much in the land of the living.

But there was more. Naruto and Kurama were both curious as to the kind of chakra tailed beasts had and why Naruto was compatible with it. Kurama, who had never really interacted with humans except for his human containers—whom all had also been compatible—didn't know much his chakra in relation to humans. They didn't know if anyone could use Kurama's chakra or if it was only the jinchuuriki or what. They agreed to find out more about it in the future.

He also needed to get to the bottom of the poison cooking mystery (something he hoped he would never have to experience again)—it made no sense how ingredients he had simply bought from the store had nearly _killed _him. Absolutely no sense. He asked Kurama if he had any idea how it had happened, but he only howled with laughter and advised Naruto to not cook anymore. Naruto hid his mildly hurt feelings at being brushed off but silently resolved to look further into it. He also did not plan to stop cooking. He recognized its potential as a weapon if it was directed towards his enemies.

They were nowhere near done addressing the countless issues there were but both had agreed it was high time Naruto returned to the land of the living.

So the moment he left the sewers, he woke up on the floor where he had collapsed. He cringed when he awoke in front of a few spots of dry blood. He cleaned that up, and burned the stew (sincerely frightened of being in the same room as it) with a fire jutsu, but not before using [Observe] on the monster he had created.

Unidentified Poison

Rank: C

Unidentifiable substance that is poisonous when consumed. Has a .02% lethality but will at least inflict 60 HP when consumed.

He couldn't believe his luck, of the 98.8% chance of surviving it, _of course _he landed in the .02%. He supposed he did end up surviving it, but that was only due to Kurama's chakra kicking in the last minute. He really felt like some higher power was out there somewhere to get him.

Now he was sitting at the edge of the bed and with the game menu open.

[Poison Cooking]

Allows user to cook poison from any kind of ingredient.

"That makes absolutely no sense." Naruto intoned to the game. Sometimes he wished the game could speak to him so it could answer his questions. "I cooked the poison before I got the skill. How does that even work?"

He went to the information section, hoping to find more on unlocking skills. Naruto sighed in disappointment when it only said doing "certain things could potentially unlock skills." So apparently _whatever _he had done had unlocked [Poison Cooking]. Grreat.

"No," Naruto shook his head, "it _is _great. It's like having my own poison concoction!" If he leveled the skill up, the lethality would probably increase. Before he did that though, he would need to find a secure place to put the poison. Preferably some place where he wouldn't accidentally consume it. He would figure something out later.

He decided he should check out the friend function next. "Stupid game keeps springing new things up at me..." Naruto grumbled to himself. He clicked the new "friends list" button that appeared in his game menu.

Friends List (1)

Kurama lvl 673

He felt slightly sad at the very short list of friends the game claimed he had, but also extremely awed at Kurama's insanely high level. So apparently if he was friends with someone, their level would be shown to him no matter how much higher leveled they were.

He clicked on his only friend's name, which brought up another blue box that displayed Kurama's profile. It showed a portrait photo of his friend, his name, title and level. Under the basic info was two buttons that said "Message" and "Join Party." Excited, Naruto clicked message.

Another notification box popped up, displaying the words: Connecting…

It disappeared and a new one reappeared, one that wrote "Connected."

"Naruto?"

Naruto jumped in surprise, swiveling his head everywhere to find where Kurama's voice was coming from. "Kurama!" He stood and ran around his apartment flat, trying to locate where the voice was coming from. "Where are you? I thought you couldn't get out of the seal."

"_What? _No, where are _you _coming from?"

"I'm was just sitting on my bed." So the game allowed them to speak to each other. Naruto grinned. This was _so _cool.

"I sense your presence here though. How are you conscious there and here with no corporeal form here?"

He couldn't very well say "the game," so he just shrugged. Then he remembered Kurama couldn't see him and said, "Just tried a little something out. It seems to be working."

Kurama growled in annoyance. "All right, next time try your experiments on someone else. You woke me from my nap."

Naruto couldn't help but beam at the air. "Can't make promises, but I'll try." He still needed to see what "join party" did after all.

Kurama only grunted and then the game presented another text box that displayed "Disconnected."

He could speak to Kurama whenever he wanted without entering his mindscape. That basically meant he had access to _the _nine tailed beast's knowledge _whenever he wanted._ It was exciting even from only thinking about it.

* * *

Ugh this chapter was such a struggle. Kurama is seriously hard to write, and I can't believe I made them friends so early on. Talk about cliche on top of cliche! sorry guys :^/

Still, hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.

oh I almost forgot, also I added the prologue to the beginning of chap 1 if you guys feel like reading it.


End file.
